Poppin Squeeze expands to include mini donuts with new food truck

Saturday

Jul 22, 2017 at 9:11 AM

Lily Abromeit

In the middle of the Downtown Topeka Farmers Market, employees in red T-shirts shake fresh lemonade and pass out big bags of kettle corn — a common sight for the Saturday market over the last year. But next door, in a little food truck, a new venture has taken hold.

Sharon Fergison, one of the operators of Poppin Squeeze, a local lemonade and kettle corn vendor, has now opened Poppin Minis, a food truck devoted entirely to selling mini donuts.

Fergison is the owner and operator of Poppin Minis and said she would get tired of shaking lemonade all day at their original stand, so she spontaneously made the move to add the mini donuts.

"I mean, it’s not like it even goes with lemonade and popcorn," she said, jokingly.

The truck has been at the Farmers Market for a few weeks, but sold blueberry donuts for the first time Saturday. Fergison said she thinks those will probably only be available for a limited time, but they will continue to fry up the original and cinnamon and sugar donuts each week.

Poppin Squeeze and Poppin Minis are at every Saturday market, except for next week, when they’ll be at an event in Salina. This is something they do often — take the trucks to different events around the area. Fergison said they are planning on making up a batch of chocolate mini donuts for the Kansas Chocolate Festival in September.

Fergison said the reaction to the truck has been good and that they often see repeat customers each week, or even people who stop by just for some of their products, not even to shop at the market. Sometimes, she said, it can be difficult to keep up with the demand.

"I think people like it because they’re fresh, they’re hot," she said, adding that if there is any kind of wait time, it’s only a few minutes. Getting hot, fresh donuts after one or two minutes, Fergison said, is worth it.

She said their most common customers are families, since the tiny size of the donuts are perfect for kids.

Tina Gooden, a resident of Topeka, bought a package of mini donuts Saturday for her 2-year-old daughter, commenting on how her daughter wouldn’t eat other food they had offered throughout the morning but that she loved the donuts.

"I think it’s for kids, it’s not just for adults, so it’s good," Gooden said.

Fergison said she doesn’t have any more plans to add on to the truck or the business and that this is the last one, but Aaron Parrish, the general manager of Poppin Squeeze, said he’s doubtful of that claim.

"They say that every time we expand," he said.

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